Abstract
No matter what happens in the world of human beings, it happens in a spatial setting, and the design of that setting has a deep and persisting influence on the people in that setting.
This timely reprint makes more widely available a brief but classic study of the Deere & Company corporate headquarters, designed by the architect Eero Saarinen and built in the mid-1960s in the countryside about 10 miles from Moline, Illinois. Spearheaded in its planning and design by William A. Hewitt, chairman and CEO, in close collaboration with the architect, the building aimed, in Saarinen’s words, to “create the kind of pleasant and appropriate environment for employees which is part of Twentieth Century thinking”; provide “functional, efficient space” for future expansion; and “express in architecture the special character of Deere & Company” as a way to improve the company’s international image (p. 15). This book focuses attention on important aspects of work settings—and thus how people communicate in those settings—that are often taken for granted even today by practitioners, researchers, and teachers of business communication. It comes at a time when a new wave of entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and academic administrators are seeing the physical design of a workplace as an agent for promoting organizational goals.
E. T. Hall and Mildred Hall are well known for their pioneering work in proxemics, a term they coined to describe the culturally determined perceptions of distances in personal and social space. They were in the early stages of that research in 1964 when they first saw the headquarters, an incongruously modern building in farmland, for a farm machinery company. It was, however, one of several important modernist corporate structures being built in the suburbs during this period, many by Saarinen (Lange, 2005;Martin, 2003). “Overwhelmed with awe” (p. 4), the Halls considered it an appealing site for an extended on-the-ground study to test their ideas about man’s sense of space, and they were welcomed by Hewitt in that pursuit. They interviewed a sample of 47 of Deere’s 12,000 employees, with some bias to upper-level managers, three times: before moving into the building, after 6 months in the building, and at the end of 5 years. During that time, they spent “many, many hours walking through the building” (p. 52), observing people at work and taking photographs. The time span was necessary to see how workers adjusted to the building and how the building held up “under everyday use” (p. 50). While their formal interviews were conducted at the company’s building, on company time, they tried to assure participants theirs was an independent investigation not funded by Deere & Company. The interviews were supplemented by open talks with other key individuals in the organization.
In a smaller format than the lush, coffee-table-sized original, and with lower quality reproductions of the photographs by Ezra Stoller, this inexpensive paperback is a useful and readable reprinting of the 1975 text. The book’s introduction describes the underlying assumptions and approach of the study. Quoting Roger Barker’s 1968 publication,Ecological Psychology, the Halls argued that the environment consists of “improbable arrangements of objects and events whichcoerce behavior in accordance with their own dynamic patterns” (italics in original; p. 9). The study focused on three interrelated factors: first, the structure itself, “program, design, workmanship”; second, “the people as physiological and psychological organisms who perform the functions the structure was designed to house”; and third, the organization in the context of other corporations, its region, and internationally (p. 10). Often presenting their evidence in metaphors of communication, they characterized what the building was saying—to employees and the world at large.
Chapter 2 elaborates on the lengthy, systematic process by which the building was planned. It also details, floor by floor, “how the building works” (p. 24) and its impact on employees as revealed through interviews and observations. The planning included many meetings and much correspondence between Hewitt and Saarinen. Floor models and a full-scale mock-up allowed testing of various external and internal materials, including furnishings, fixtures, and even the table settings for the cafeteria. While sometimes reluctant before they moved into the building, workers later became generally positive, pleased with furniture and equipment that provided everything they needed to “function efficiently” (p. 34). They also enjoyed views of the landscape. Several mentioned that “the building has actually changed their approach to their work. They felt freer to see new solutions and to try things out” (p. 28). The Halls quoted one employee who said that the building “changed my thinking and I’m not so much in a rut anymore” (p. 28). But there was dissatisfaction with company policy against any personalization of one’s work space. Large open areas and glass walls surrounding some private offices led some to think they were denied privacy, were “on display all the time” (p. 28), and must work faster. They also complained about the lack of color in the building, but complaints lessened when a corporate art program was implemented. A separate executive floor had a different arrangement, with private offices presenting outdoor views.
Chapter 3 examines the building as an “organizational statement.” Hewitt’s major goals were to improve the company’s image, locally and internationally, and enhance its recruiting efforts. The many articles praising the building published in both the business and the popular press, in addition to special architectural awards, including a 25-year award from the American Institute of Architects in 1993, attest to the achievement of this goal. According to the Halls, the building established Deere & Company as the “pace setter for the farm equipment industry,” and in spite of some early misgivings about the acceptance of the “daring design” of the project by the company’s farmer customers, the building won the customers over (pp. 36-37). Employees, too, expressed pride in the building. It also served the company’s public relations efforts. Attractive for visitors, the auditorium and other facilities, including the grounds, were made available to groups in the community.
Chapter 4 provides guidelines for architects derived from an analysis of the relationship between Saarinen and Hewitt as they worked together to achieve a successful corporate headquarters. From today’s perspective, the advice is relatively routine: Client and architect need to negotiate and make clear such matters as the company’s organization, goals, status differentiations and markings, and taste as well as the allocation of space which, consciously or unconsciously, represents priorities and encourages or discourages certain behavior. In a recommendation that foreshadows a point of serious attention in the design of today’s open plan offices, the Halls noted that “while large open areas arevisuallyattractive, much more research should be done on the impact of this kind of environment on various kinds of people doing various kinds of tasks” (p. 30). The final chapter details the study’s methodology and summarizes and interprets the formal interviews more extensively than in the second chapter. In general, after 5 years in the building, most respondents felt they would not change a thing in their work space and that “it meant a great deal to them personally to work in a famous building” (p. 60). One noted, “People work better in this building” (p. 60). To the Halls, the building looked almost brand new.
In his 1994 foreword, E. T. Hall reiterated the importance of the building to the people working there (“a work machine”) and the message it carried about the Deere & Company brand: quality, attention to detail, efficiency, durability of the company’s products, and care for employees and customers (p. 6). Hall concluded that the Saarinen building “changed the company, the people, and the farm machinery industry” (p. 6). The building continues to serve as the company’s world headquarters in 2017 and its grounds are open to visitors every day.
Designers and corporate leaders today may be creating physical workplaces aimed at encouraging and supporting very different activities than the ones Hewitt and Saarinen had in mind, especially fostering collaboration and innovation through project-based, group-oriented communication. But this case study of Deere & Company provides a research model for instructors of business communication to incorporate as they prepare students to understand the messages such new environments are sending about appropriate workplace behavior.